With
the passing of Rosa Parks, the news has been filled with the “awe” of
this tiny person, to see her standing beside others, who, one day, decided
she had had enough of being discriminated against by white people and
decided to rebel.

This
is the picture of spontaneous rebellion painted of this “little woman”
who now lies in estate, the first woman ever, in our nation’s capital,
eulogized by the likes of Condoleeza Rice as her hero and mentor.

But
is this the real picture or is this just the picture painted for us by
the media? Let’s take a look. The following is from an article found in
the San Jose Mercury, January 16, 2000, which states, in part:

"Before refusing
to give up her bus seat, Parks had spent 12 years helping lead the local
NAACP chapter, along with union activist E.D. Minon, from the Brotherhood
of Sleeping Car Porters, teachers from the local Negro college and a
variety of ordinary members of Montgomery's African -American community.

"The summer before,
(her famous action on a bus) Parks had attended a 10 day training session
at Tennessee's labor and civil rights organizing school, the Highlander
Center, where she'd met an older generation of civil rights activists
and discussed the Supreme Court decision banning 'separate but equal
schools'.......... In short, Parks didn't make a spur-of-the-moment
decision. Rosa Parks didn't single-handedly give birth to the civil
rights efforts..... In contemporary myth, Parks decides to act almost
on a whim; she's a virgin to politics, a holy innocent for whom an inspired
moment suddenly arrived. Parks' real story conveys a far more empowering
moral. She begins with seemingly modest steps. She goes to a meeting
and then another......Had she and other given up after her 10th or 11th
year of commitment, we might never have heard of Montgomery.........."

Oh dear,
this isn’t quite the picture being so carefully painted for us by the
media today, is it? Is this really true? Let’s take a trip to the Highlander
Research and Education Center, aka, the Highlander Folk School, see
what this “organizing school”, if it really is, is all about. The following
is from the Highlander Center website:

There
comes a moment, a turn, when people stop thinking about what has happened
to them, and start thinking about what they can make happen.

This
old truism of community organizing stands, as well as anything, for the
principles that underlie the 60-year-old Highlander Center, which, to
the extent that such a complex program can be boiled down to a single
sentence, serves as a school for grassroots community organizers in the
Appalachian and Southern states.

Founded
in 1932 by Myles Horton and a group of supporters as the Highlander Folk
School, a "school for adults," where people of like spirit could meet,
share their experiences and learn from each other, the center has continued
with essentially little change in its basic principles.

Such
famous organizers as Martin Luther King came there (earning the school
some notoriety among local segregationists, who considered the institution
"communistic"); so did Rosa Parks, who contrary to the myth that her leadership
of the Montgomery, Ala., bus strike was merely the act of a tired woman
who would not be moved, was trained here before the strike. And, in more
modern times, many well-known Appalachian organizers, like Becky Simpson
of the Cranks Creek Survival Center, have won fellowships here to share
and to learn.

Horton
organized Highlander, then in the town of Monteagle, Tenn., originally
to train Southern union organizers. Its primary focus moved to desegregation
in the '50s, and the resulting controversy inspired state officials to
take legal action to yank its charter as a school in 1960. Unbowed, Horton
moved the institution to Knoxville's inner city, and then, about two decades
ago, to its current setting on 110 beautiful acres of hilltop meadow with
a view of the Great Smoky Mountains, about 20 miles out into the countryside
east of Knoxville.

A search
on Myles Horton turns up the following:

The
Highlander Center in Tennessee was started in 1932 by Myles Horton and
James Dombrowski, both members of the Communist Party. According to a
book, 'Speak Now', a left-wing history of the civil rights movement, the
original purpose was to train communist activists on how to promote textile
strikes, hold protest marches, picket lines and learn 'socialist songs'.
The Textile Workers Union was completely controlled by the Communist Party.....'Speak
Now', says that Parks attended summer training at the Highlander Folk
School in 1955, 1956 and 1957. She is pictured with Martin Luther King
sitting on the front row in a Highlander training class on September 2,
1957. [source: Christian News; May 14, 2001; letter of Ed Toner, New Jersey]

In the
book, Martin Luther King, The Man Behind the Myth, (Des Griffin, Emmisary
Publications; Clackamas, Oregon) the following is written (page 14, 15
and 16):

Mrs.
Parks had been well prepared for her adventure by a recent educational
experience that included a course at an institution called Highlander
Folk School, in Monteagle, Tennessee.

. .
. Highlander Folk School was opened in 1954 [note this date differs here
from other sources. I do not know whether it is a typo or error here or
whether the school may have existed elsewhere or by another name prior
to that] by Myles Horton and Dr. James A Dombrowski. These two fine, upstanding
gentlemen had, just months earlier, been run out of Mena, Arkansas, for
running a communist front called Commonwealth College. The college was
convicted under the laws of Arkansas of displaying the hammer and sicle
and openly teaching communism. The state levied a $2,500 fine. When the
college couldn't pay the fine, the state took over the property, sold
it at public auction and used the money to cover the costs.

. .
. A detailed communist plot to use Commonwealth College (later Highlander
Folk School) as an instrument of communist propaganda, was outlined in
a secret report on communism reprinted by the House Committee on Un-American
Activities. On April 27, 1947, the U.S. Attorney General cited Commonwealth
College as a communist front (New York Times, April 28, 1949)

And
what is available to teachers in classroom regarding Rosa Parks? What
about the following, taken from the Highlander Folk School website:

Mighty
Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks

"You
Can't Padlock the Ideas": The Highlander Folk School

A pivotal
episode in Rosa Parks' life was her two-week stay at the Highlander Folk
School in Monteagle, Tennessee.

While
the school initially focused on justice for workers in the South, racial
segregation became the pervading issue for the school for several decades
beginning in the early 1940s.

Mrs.
Parks attended Highlander only months before she stood up to segregation
on a Montgomery bus in December 1955. It was at Highlander where she learned
about nonviolent protest and the teachings of Indian nationalist leader
Mahatma Gandhi.

Now
located in New Market, Tenn., the school is still training activists from
all over the world, but their current focus is on poverty in Appalachia.

ACTIVITY

1. Compile
a more detailed history of Highlander by visiting the school's website.
Create handouts for the classroom.

2. After
students have read about Highlander's history, ask the following questions.

What
was the initial purpose of the Highlander Folk School?

How
did the school become involved with the Civil Rights Movement? What philosophies
did the school advocate that were embraced by civil rights leaders?

When
did Rosa Parks attend the Highlander School and what was she involved
in that inspired her to attend? How did Mrs. Parks utilize her Highlander
School training? How does the fact that she was a trained activist dispel
the common perception that she was a tired, working woman who just wanted
to sit down?

What
was Highlander accused of in the 1950's that brought them so much negative
press? Why was this such a negative label? What was the result of the
attack? Besides training activists for the Civil Rights Movement, what
other types of activist campaigns did the Highlander School support and
train leaders for? What are issues that are currently of concern to the
Highlander School? If you could attend a school that would help you fight
for an issue that you feel strongly about, what would that issue be? What
would you want to learn from such a school?

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All
of this speaks for itself. We should be careful who we put on pedestals.

“Beware
of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they
are ravenous wolves.” --Matthew 7:15

“Thou
shall have no other gods before Me.” --Exodus 20:3 (Ten Commandments)

I wish
to give thanks to Mary Thompson, trusted friend, for her major contribution
to this article.

Mother and wife, Stuter has spent the past ten
years researching systems theory with a particular emphasis on education.
She home schooled two daughters, now grown and on their own. She has worked
with legislators, both state and federal, on issues pertaining to systems
governance and education reform. She networks nationwide with other researchers
and citizens concerned with the transformation of our nation. She has
traveled the United States and lived overseas. Web site: www.learn-usa.com
E-Mail: lmstuter@learn-usa.com

.
. . A detailed communist plot to use Commonwealth College (later Highlander
Folk School) as an instrument of communist propaganda, was outlined in
a secret report on communism reprinted by the House Committee on Un-American
Activities